Fall Into Place
by greer
Summary: The last of the four in the "Fall" series. Stacey deals with her own decisions and their "fall"out. Plus, romantic hijinks ensue when Samantha and Ed join together in holy matrimony!
1. chapter 1

"Aughhh, I knew that December was a busy month, but I never imagined it'd be like this!" I called over to Joshua, who was busy trying to cope with all the customers begging for him to help them. I was at the register, trying to make some headway on the loonnng line of customers waiting to check out.  
  
"I know, Stace; it's totally crazy," Joshua smiled over at me. Joshua is one of the people who work for my mother's store, Paradisa. I'm the youngest on the staff; in fact, if my mother wasn't my mother, well, it'd be illegal for me to work there. I'm glad I can. I love clothes, and working in a store like this one helps me stay on the cutting edge very easily.  
  
There were only 20 shopping days left, and everyone seemed to be needing to buy presents for their daughters, girlfriends, sisters, mothers. It made for a very busy store. I was glad though; the more volume we got, the better the store would be doing. My mother gave up a lot of money and security when she left her position at Bellair's Department Store as a buyer. Opening your own store is a risky venture, but it was totally worth it. It made my mother happy, and I suppose she needed the distraction. My father, from whom she'd been divorced for about a year, was engaged to his girlfriend, Samantha.  
  
The wedding was this month. I was happy for them, and I like Samantha a lot. But even though my mom knew she couldn't ever be married to my father again, and she wouldn't want to be, it still hurt her a little, I think, to see him with someone else.  
  
I know the feeling--although I'm sure not to the same magnitude she has. I've had quite a few boyfriends, and one, Robert, even cheated on me. But I'm not bitter. Robert and I are friends now, and I've even helped him through some tough times.  
  
But I definitely know what it feels like to have your heart broken.  
  
Boy problems were not on my mind that afternoon, however--the upcoming wedding was! After all, it's not every day your dad gets married. It was in a week, and even though I tried not to let it show too much in front of Mom, I was excited. They'd rented out a room at the Tavern on the Green for the reception, and since Samantha does fashion photography, it'd be very chic and very fun.   
  
Joshua snapped me out of my daydream. "Stacey, why don't you work the floor for a while. I need a change of pace." He ran his hand through his short, spiky, platnium-dyed hair.   
  
"Sure," I said. "Be my guest."   
  
He grinned and took over for me.  
  
Just then, my mom emerged from the back. "Oh Stacey, honey, could you put these out for me? They just came in," and handed me a bunch of necklaces. They were silver and turquoise, and very delicate-looking.   
  
"These are great," I said, fingering them.  
  
"Are you trying to hint at something?" Mom teased.  
  
"Who, me? Nahh..." I grinned.  
  
"Back to work," she said, and disappeared into the back again.  
  
As I was putting the necklaces on display, my best friend, Claudia Kishi, came into the store. Her face was tear-streaked. I left the necklaces where they were and ran over to her.  
  
"Claud, what's wrong?" 


	2. chapter 2

My mother came into the front at that moment. "Claudia!" she said. "I thought I heard your voice. Have you completed some more Funky--" Then she caught sight of Claudia's face and cut herself off. "Stacey," she said. "You guys head into the back. I'll take your spot out here."  
  
"Thanks Mom!" I called over my shoulder as I led Claudia into her office.  
  
Claudia and I slumped together in one of the large, overstuffed chairs that Mom bought at a garage sale. "Now," I said. "What on earth is wrong?"  
  
"Alan and I broke up," she said, not lifting her tear-streaked face.  
  
"Oh honey," I said. "I'm so sorry. What happened?" I reached over to the desk and got a box of tissues and handed them to her.  
  
"Thanks," she said, wiping her face. "Well, it's no secret that we've been fighting and stuff lately, and today after school, we were walking home. And we had just turned onto Locust Avenue when I asked him what he wanted to do this weekend. He goes, 'Claudia, I don't think this is working. I'm really sorry,'" and walked away."  
  
"Wow," I said, not knowing quite else what to say. "Want stay over at my house tonight or something? Watch some chickflicks, pour over some fashion magazines?"  
  
Claudia smiled for the first time since she'd arrived. "Sure," she said, scrunching up her tissue and leaning forward a little bit. "That'd be great."  
  
There was a knock on the door. "Come in," I called.  
  
It was my mother. "I'm sorry, but we really need you out there, Stacey."  
  
I nodded. "Mom, Claudia's sleeping over tonight. Is that okay?"  
  
"Sure," she said. "It's Friday, after all. No big deal."  
  
"Thanks, Ms. Spencer," Claudia said. "I'm going to go home and get my stuff. What time should I be at your house?"  
  
"Stacey goes home at 5. So by 5:30, someone will definitely be there," Mom replied.  
  
Claudia nodded and left. I went back into the store and dived into the holiday rush.  
  
**********************************  
  
Claudia reached my house about five minutes after I did.  
  
"Hey," I greeted her. "What do you want to do?"  
  
"Watch a movie, I guess."  
  
So we headed into the den, where, along with the TV, my mother and I keep our collection of tapes and DVDs.   
  
"Let's get something decidedly cry-worthy," she suggested.  
  
"Hmm.." I said. "'Dancer in the Dark?'"  
  
Claudia wrinkled her nose. "Not THAT sad!"  
  
I grinned. "Umm... 'The Way We Were?'"  
  
"That sounds perfect," she agreed.  
  
I popped it in the VCR and went into the kitchen to make popcorn. Claudia followed. "Your mom wasn't mad or anything, right?"  
  
"Oh, of course not!" I said. "Why would you think that?"  
  
Claudia sighed. "I don't know what to think anymore."  
  
I gave her a quick hug.  
  
"I mean," she started. "I'm no longer dating Alan, you're not talking to Kristy, Janine's applying to collges, the BSC has ended, we're not at SMS anymore..."  
  
I nodded. "So much has changed since June." I went over to the fridge and pulled out a diet soda. My mom drinks regular soda, so I got out a can of Coke for Claud.   
  
"Thanks," she said, and took it. She popped the top and took a sip. "I'm not trying to accuse you of anything or whatever, you know, by bringing up the Kristy thing. But it does kind of, um, bother the rest of the ex-BSC members."  
  
"Really?" I said distractedly. I didn't feel like talking about Kristy. Truth is, I didn't really know why I was mad at her anymore. It was just that I hadn't talked to her for four months and I didn't know how to approach her.  
  
"Yeah," she said. At that moment, the microwave beeped and the popcorn was ready. "Well," she said. "Time to watch the movie."  
  
I poured it into a bowl and carried it into the den. Claudia followed and schlumped down on the couch.  
  
"Popcorn?" she said.  
  
"Check."  
  
"Soda?"  
  
"Check."  
  
"Tissues?"  
  
I held up a large box of Kleenex and grinned. "Check."  
  
"Okay, I think we're ready." Claudia pressed play. 


	3. chapter 3

a/n: Lyrics are from "Cut Your Hair" by Pavement.   
  
We had just gotten to the part where Barbra Streisand tells Robert Redford that she's pregnant when Claudia jumped up suddenly and grabbed her purse.  
  
"Pause the movie, okay? I'm going to the bathroom," she said.  
  
"Um, okay," I replied. While she was in there, I looked around the room and decided that the picutre hanging over the tv was looking a little crooked. When I got up to fix it, I ended up knocking over the popcorn.  
  
So when Claudia emerged from the bathroom, I was bent over picking up stray popcorn pieces. She started to sing.  
  
"Darlin' don't you go and cut your hair/Do you think it's gonna make him change?/'I'm just a boy with a new haircut'/And that's a pretty nice haircut." Her voice sounded even more wavery than usual, but then again, Claudia can't sing anyway.  
  
I laughed. "Claud, you know you're tone--" Then I turned around and gasped.  
  
Claudia had, indeed, cut her hair. Her hair had always been her crowning glory. It was long, shiny, and jet black; Claudia was constantly doing interesting things with it.   
  
And this was certainly interesting.   
  
Gone was all the length. She'd cut off, I say, about a good 2 feet: her hair was now up to about her ears and had choppy layers. It looked _good_, and it made sense that Claudia had made it look good since she is such a fantastic artist. It still looked incredibly different though, and her new look would take some getting used to.  
  
"Well, what do you think?" she asked me, laughing, but sounding a little shaky.  
  
"It looks really good on you, but sooo different," I said, laughing along with her.  
  
"Yeah, I know. I needed a change though," she replied.  
  
I raised my eyebrows. "But earlier you said that things were changing too much."  
  
"Things around me are changing, but I haven't--hadn't--changed a bit."  
  
"I suppose so," I said. I considered Claudia's statement for a minute. Had I, too, gotten into a state of stagnancy?   
  
"Maybe I should cut my hair. I need a change too," I suggested, only half-kidding.  
  
Claudia shook her head vigorously. "I don't think my haircut would work with your style."  
  
"You're probably right. But really, you did a nice job."  
  
Claudia shrugged. "All in a day's work. Now, back to the movie." 


	4. chapter 4

The movie finished, we headed off to my bedroom.  
  
"Hey," Claudia said, picking up a lipstick from off my dressing table. "For old time's sake, let's do makeovers or something."  
  
I grinned. "Not a bad idea."  
  
"Okay, I do you first," she said.  
  
I opened my mouth in mock horror. "Don't think you're going to cut _my_ hair!"  
  
Claudia laughed and opened a fashion magazine. She showed me a page with BRIGHT blue eyeshadow smeared all over the model's lid. "I'm going to try this. What drawer is your eyeshadow in?"  
  
I raised my eyebrows but hey, nothing wrong with a little change. "Um, top drawer."  
  
She opened it up and started rifling through it. Suddenly, she stopped.  
  
"Find the eyeshadow?" I asked.  
  
"Um, no," she said. "But I found something else."  
  
I was genuinely puzzled. "What?"  
  
She turned around, holding a wrapped condom. She threw it on my bed. "That," she said plainly.  
  
"Oh, um, yeah..." I started.   
  
She shook her head. "And you've been giving Kristy a hard time."  
  
I was starting to get a little mad. Well, more than a little. "My sex life, Claudia, is none of your business."  
  
"Whatever," she spat. "I don't care if you have sex. But I do care when you're treating Kristy like shit for doing something she's not supposed to do when you're off doing things _you're_ not supposed to do."  
  
"There's a world of difference..." I stopped myself. "Well, actually there isn't."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"I don't know Claud... Ethan, well, he wasn't a virgin when he met me..."  
  
Claudia looked a little surprised. "Really?"  
  
"Yeah. Remember that time when we went to New York together, and there was that crazy chick who was stalking Ethan?"  
  
"The one he dated before you?"  
  
"Yeah, well, he's had sex with her. I mean, before he met me and stuff."  
  
She sat down on the bed. "Wow."  
  
"Yeah. But I only started having sex with him like, last month."  
  
She furrowed her eyebrows thoughtfully. "How do you feel about it? I mean, what's changed since then?"  
  
"Well, it hurt at first, and now it feels good but..." I closed my eyes. "Sometimes I feel like, obligated, to have sex. It's fun and all, but I feel like if I don't do it, I'm letting him down or something." To my surprise, I started to cry. "And well, every time we have sex, there's a part of me that feels so scared until I get my period." I sat down next to her on the bed and she put her arm around me.  
  
"Does your mom know?" she asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"You should really tell her, Stace. You should like, get on the pill or something. I mean, it'll be hard to tell her and everything, but you really do need to go to the gyno."  
  
"I can't imagine what she'd say. I'm only fourteen. I mean, Ethan's sixteen. There's a lot more sixteen-year-olds having sex than fourteen-year-olds. She'd probably be disappointed in me."  
  
"Well," Claudia said thoughtfully. "I don't think she'd be surprised. I'm not trying to say that you're a slut or anything, but you have had an awful lot of boyfriends. The thought must have crossed her mind."  
  
I lied down and sighed. "If I couldn't even tell you, Claud, how am I supposed to tell my mom?"  
  
Claudia lied down next to me. "Stacey, were you really ready to have sex?"  
  
I started crying again. "I don't know," I said through my tears. I wiped them with the back of my hand. "Damnit, why am I crying?"  
  
"I don't know, Stace, I just don't know." She shook her head. "Anyway, are you _really_ mad at Kristy?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I mean, she really feels kind of shitty about the whole thing."  
  
I sighed. "I guess not. I guess I need to work through my own problems or whatever before I can even think of Kristy."  
  
"Sorry, Stacey. I didn't mean to be insensitive."  
  
"It's okay. Claud?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks so much for supporting me." I gave her a hug. "And I know I should tell my mother. I mean, we're close enough, but I don't think I'm ready to tell her. I just want it all to go away, you know?" I said, sitting up on my elbows.  
  
"Have you told Ethan this?"  
  
"No." I began to feel sort of bad. Here Claudia was, just going through a breakup, and I was making her counsel me on my own relationship problems.  
  
"Anyway, Claudia; how are _you_ doing?"  
  
"Huh?" She looked genuinely puzzled.  
  
"I mean, the whole Alan thing," I clarified.  
  
"Oh, that," she said. "Well, I _knew_ it was coming. It still hurts but..." She turned to face me. "You know what I'm talking about?"  
  
I nodded. "I felt that way when I broke up with Jeremy."  
  
"Jeremy." Claudia smiled wryly. "Now there was a disaster."  
  
I grinned. "Yeah. I can't believe we let a boy come between us."  
  
Claud and I began to rehash our boy histories. I started to feel like myself again. 


	5. chapter 5

Claudia left around noon on Saturday. I stretched out on the couch, prepared to start my Algebra II homework, when the phone rang.  
  
Claud and I had been up late last night, and I was super tired. I could barely manage to stuffle my yawn when I answered with a "Hello?"  
  
"Stacey! How's my boontsie?" It was my dad.  
  
"Aww, dad," I groaned at the use of his baby nickname for me.  
  
"Well, the wedding's a week from now, and I wanted to know something."  
  
I furrowed my brow. I thought everything was prepared. "What's that?"  
  
"Is there anyone else you'd like to have at the wedding?" he asked. I'd invited my friends to the wedding. After all, at the wedding of Dawn's father and stepmother, Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne had attended. And, of course, I was inviting Ethan. My dad hadn't always been fond of Ethan; he'd thought Ethan was too old for me. But now he saw that I was growing up, and he decided that Ethan was a pretty nice guy, especially after he'd heard from Laine's father about the guys Laine went around with. Laine and I had grown apart, but my parents and Laine's parents were still friends.  
  
Anyway, I had an answer to Dad's question. "Yes," I said, surprising myself. "Kristy Thomas."  
  
"Kristy," Dad said. "I always liked her. She'll make a great businesswoman someday."  
  
Dad and I talked for a while more, about wedding plans and what I was going to wear and et cetera. I wasn't going to be a bridesmaid; Dad and Samantha were having a simple and elegant wedding, without attendants. Just friends, family, and a chic reception afterwards.  
  
After we'd said goodbye, I picked up the phone again and dialed a number I hadn't even thought of for a long time.  
  
"Hello?" an vaguely familiar male voice said.  
  
"Hi, this is Stacey McGill. Is Kristy there?" I asked, my heart pounding.  
  
"Stacey! It's Sam."  
  
"Oh, hi, Sam," I said, not all that enthusiastically. Sam and I had gone out, briefly and unofficially, when I was in the seventh grade.   
  
"How're you doing?" he asked, obviously not eager to go get Kristy for me.  
  
"I'm fine," I answered hastily. "My dad's getting remarried next week."  
  
"Cool!" he said.  
  
I was starting to get impatient. "Look Sam, I reeaally need to speak to Kristy. Can you get her for me?"  
  
"Uh, sure," he replied, sounding disappointed.  
  
I heard him yell upstairs. Kristy picked up the extension. "Hello?" she said.  
  
"Hi Kristy, it's me, Stacey."  
  
"Stacey!" she said, sounding genuinely surprised. Well, of course she was surprised, I chided myself. I'd been treating her like shit for months.  
  
"Kristy, can you come over?"  
  
"When?" she asked.  
  
"Um, right now," I answered.  
  
"Uh, sure," she answered. "I can get Nannie to drive me."  
  
Look, I said to myself. You invited Kristy, and she didn't try to strangle you through telephone wires.   
  
Things were going well. "Great," I said. "See you soon."  
  
"Bye," and there was a _click_.  
  
I sat down on the couch and sighed deeply. What was I going to say to her? Just a simple, "Hey, can you come to my dad's wedding?" or should I apologize and talk about my problems and all that sort of thing?  
  
My mother came into the den at that moment, putting on some earrings. "Stace, can you come down to the store with me?"  
  
"I would if I could," I answered.  
  
Mom looked puzzled. "Why can't you come?"  
  
"Kristy's coming over."  
  
Now she just looked surprised. "Kristy? I thought you were angry at her."  
  
"I was," I answered simply. "But I realized I was wrong."  
  
"I'm glad you're going to patch things up."  
  
"Me, too," I said honestly. "Me, too."  
  
Mom smiled and headed out the door, destination: Paradisa. 


End file.
